Mark Foster's blog by Mark_Foster

Hello everyone. I hope you've all had a good week and are getting used to the end of the summer. The holidays are over for most of us and I can see the streets and buses and trains are full of school kids. God I can still remember that sinking feeling of going back to school for a new term, but also the relief of my parents getting me out of their hair. I’ve had a varied week which started off with the Boots Conference. I am one of the faces of Wellman and I have been somewhat embarrassed to have my mug shot all over the buses and tubes, although I was pleasantly surprised to find my mate Denise Lewis all over the side of a bus and she was 5 times the size of my picture! So last week they had their two day conference, so I went up to join the team at the evening dinner and did a stint on the stall the following day. It was great as always to catch up with Robert and the guys who do all the work for the company, and really interesting to see the wide cross section of people who attended the conference.

On the way back I dropped into Barnet Copthall to catch up with James O'Shea and his coach Rhys Gormley, to see how he is progressing and he is doing fantastically well. Last week he almost equalled the British record for his Paralympic class. Now considering how long he has been swimming seriously and the fact that he has a year to get ready, his progress is staggering. I am still looking for a sponsor for James so he can get more time in the water, so if here is anyone out there... Every year, my agency Stuart Higgins Communications has a summer party in Teddington which is a gathering of clients, staff and friends to just get together, catch up and enjoy themselves. This year was no exception. I met up with good mates and caught up with the goings on at SHC. Stuart is a director of Ticket for Troops and I met some of the soldiers who had been injured which is always moving and humbling. It makes me realise how lucky I am and how courageous they are.

I get invited to attend swimming clubs and show support and this week I really wanted to attend the Guernsey Swimming Club's 125th anniversary. This is a fantastic club which is run entirely by volunteers on a shoestring budget. Yet they manage to turn out week after week to teach young kids to swim and offer more serious training and coaching to the seniors. So I must give a big shout out to Karen and Matt who organised the swim clinics and made the arrangements for me to attend. There was a brilliant evening dinner and I was treated the following day to a wonderful lunch by Simon Russell the swimming coach, who is an amazing goldsmith and restaurateur!! Now there is a man who can multi-task! Thanks go to him and Tanya. But it wasn't all fine wine and great food. I also took some swimming classes which is always good fun and exhausting. But you can't beat the enthusiasm of kids in the water to find a bit more energy, as well as the banter and competitiveness of the seniors! I also met some really impressive people, especially Roger, a 70-year-old man who had just completed the Channel swim and at 70 years old was the oldest man to do so! What an awesome feat.

And talking of awesome feats, Sports Relief invited myself (along with Tanni Grey Thompson, Steve Redgrave, Barbara Windsor, Miranda Hart and Lenny Henry) to watch David Walliams complete his length of the River Thames swim ... all 140 miles of it! It was a great turnout from the public and just goes to show how much they appreciate the lengths people go to, to raise money for good causes. David Walliams has to be one of the most spectacular examples of guts and sheer determination, surely earning him the status of national treasure. It was an incredible feat and puts the achievements of many of us sports people to shame. God only knows what sports people can do to match that - answers on a post card please.

And finally for my own bit of fund raising, I have agreed to cycle from London to Brighton to raise money for The International Children’s Trust. They are a small children's charity who do some fantastic work all over the world with disadvantaged children. Last year I was particularly impressed with the work of a man called Ignatius, who when one of his twin boys was born with cerebral palsy, couldn't find a school to offer him an education. So he quit his job and set up his own school offering education for disabled children. In rural India, that is no mean task. The school has been going for several years now and both of his boys are now in university! That is what I call an achievement, so I agreed to help raise funds for his school. So, on the 24th September I am setting off from London to cycle to Brighton. If any of you out there could afford to donate just a few quid it would be really appreciated.

To give online please visit www.justgiving.com/bike4kidsworldwide and select the donate button or you can text IGIV20 plus an amount between £1 and £10 to 70070 (e.g. IGIV20 £5). I will keep you informed of my progress. Well that’s all folks - have a good week.